Forever Yours
by Beatrice Benedick
Summary: Gio never wanted to be Betty's Rebound Guy but fate had decided otherwise for their destiny. AU. GxB
1. Forever The Rebound

**FOREVER YOURS**

——

**Foreword:**

**To ****Sal, as a thank you note for writing her first fanfic. **

**Sorry for the exaggerated length of the pointless dialogues and thoughts. Gio and Betty just kept talking in my head and I didn't have enough courage to shut them up or delete their ramblings. **

**So fashion right now is that everyone is posting the songs they played as they were writing their fics. Here is mine: 1973 by James Blunt. I needed a slight touch of nostalgia…**

——

**Forever T****he Rebound**

She felt a ray of light enter the room from a crack of the venetian window and caressed her eyelids until she reluctantly opened her eyes. She also felt a bit of chill running through her completely naked body. She looked around: the sheets were all over the floor near the clothes and the shoes, the empty bottles, the glasses... the whole room was a mess and she was cold. But she wasn't in the mood for going hunting for cover so she searched for refuge in the warm body that was resting near her. She curled up against him. Her left tight on top of the warmth between his legs, soft and quiet now, fragile and delicate to the touch. "Delicate" she thought laughing to herself, as if she had been offensive. Not exactly the first word she would have ever picked to describe all that passion and savageness that those walls have witnessed just a few hours ago. She turned her eyes to him again, all of his body lying peacefully by her side. She took some time to study the chest moving slowly as he breathed calmly and peacefully. And she loved to see him there lying still and silent. Yes, he slept like a child, the only time he wasn't excited about something… so vulnerable. In a state not many people knew him to be, but she knew him well. She liked to think she knew him better even than himself for she was the one that had rejoiced in watching him in his sleep, observing him…

She contemplated his features and the forehead slowly gaining battle against his silky hair as time passed. She reached to him until the fingers of her left hand stared caressing his hair. She touched those strands of white hair running in pack from his temple, falling over his left ear. Oh, how she loved those uncolored strands, clear sign of life, experience and hard work!

He moved slowly awakening to her caresses and turned to face her.

"So you are still here".

"I left your keys at home… I thought I told you last night", she said.

He yawned and looked at the roof, adjusting his eyes to the morning light. He knew she could have left the front door unlocked. She had done that many times before. But he didn't want to think too much, it was already nice that she was there.

She moved her fingers gently dancing from his temple through his hair to his earlobe, then traveled south across his neck and ended drawing circles around his chest, unable to find a single hair in his naked body. "Besides I feel like tasting one of your special breakfasts today".

"Who said I'm cooking?" He moved slightly and placed his left hand behind his head. She rested her head in the comfort of his arm.

"You will".

"I'm not" he said as a matter of fact.

He stared into space and smiled as his lungs greedy took a deep taste of the air. It felt so good to feel her warmth in the mornings, there, by his side, as he woke up and greeted a new day. His smile faded away as he released the air slowly. He knew better. He knew that would only last a few hours. Then, like a fated version of Cinderella, the spell will be broken, everything will vanish in front of his eyes and a new day and a new reality will steal her away from him. And he had always known that. And she had always known that. But only God knew for how long: a week, a month, maybe just a day, could be tomorrow or the day after tomorrow or could be one full season… but never a year. No, never for a year, because she kept coming back to him and he kept coming back to her, miserably dragged by a force that kept them together and apart, like the sun and the moon, creating days of bright light and pitch black darkened nights.

He let out a sigh. "Sometimes I wish you get yourself married…" Her head was still resting in his left arm. She stopped stroking his chest and paid attention to his words that continued in that husky voice of his: "that you are finally forbidden to me forever". He frowned. "What good would that do, anyway?" He gave a little chuckle imagining something. "I think that not even then you'll leave me alone… argh!"

She pressed his nipple between her fingers punishing him. "Gio! Are you implying that I'm the type who would cheat on my husband with you?"

He grabbed her wrist with his right hand holding her firmly, careful not to hurt her but claiming his power over her.

"Betty Suarez, I'm not implying… I'm sure about it".

She scoffed making herself free from his grasp. He was too full of himself.

"Then why haven't_ you_ married?" she asked.

He remained silent for a moment then sat on the bed, slightly pushing Betty away. He looked around trying to find something. He grunted.

"Where are my slippers?"

"You're changing subjects".

"I'm not changing the damn subject!" He felt the coldness of the floor against his feet. How much he hated that!

Betty turned to her side of the bed and searched for something in the floor. "There!" She threw the slippers to the other side of bed where Gio was sitting. They jumped against the surface of the floor. He picked them up one by one and glared at her. He contemplated that shivering body that clung to the pillow trying to find something to cover herself.

"I've told you thousand of times…" he threw her one of the blankets that were in the floor, "…not to move them from where I left them".

"Whatever," she said snuggling inside the soft silky sheets. "I had to pee. And it's your fault… why don't you install a carpet?"

He started grumbling as he picked a few of his clothes from the floor Betty followed him with her eyes as he walked around the room naked: his body flexible and strong. "He had gained a bit of weight", she though. Late night meals were finally paying his toll in his body.

"And stop barking or you'll never get yourself a wife", she continued as he went to the bathroom and she found herself staring at one of the photos in the wall. That one the opening of the first branch of Gio´s Sandwich Depot. She had been there that day; she the one in the back, dressed like she was going to the carnival. But she wasn't staring at the camera; she had her eyes fixed on the one in the front among a group of people, the young guy with a big white grin in his face, his long hair completely black.

"Find a wife soon, Gio. You're not getting any younger".

Of course she only said that to upset him. Last night display proved her that age suited well to Giovanni Rossi. Time hadn't diminished his eagerness and passion. Actually, quite the opposite, like a well aged wine she felt more than ever his energy pierce her very soul with every single move. She blushed like a teenager remembering the way he had touched just a few hours ago.

She heard some unintelligible words coming from the bathroom.

"What?" she yelled.

After a while he peeked from the door and pointed at her with his foaming toothbrush.

"I said… you're not getting any younger yourself. You are already forty. I can marry anytime I want; you, you must have children".

"Ha!" she answered as he returned to the bathroom. She really didn't want to think about it. But he was right about that. She knew the cursed biological clock was tickling. She just hasn't found the father of her children… yet. She frowned and closed her eyes. No, she didn't want to face reality. Why couldn't life just stay like that, in Gio's apartment, her special hideout in moments of storm, his peaceful haven among the wilderness of the outside world?

With those thoughts in mind she fell asleep.

She woke up again to the smell of bacon and eggs. She smiled. So he was cooking for her after all. She jumped out of the bed got her toothbrush from the shelf and after she brushed her teeth, she covered her naked self with one of the colorful bathrobes she loved and he kept carefully in one of the lowest drawers. She still smelled at him and she liked it. She decided to take the shower later.

"You know, I've been thinking: four months… that's a record," he said placing some boiled peas in her plate. I never expected you to stay for that long with 'Chinese Dumpling'."

She smirked at yet another of the many codenames he used for her exes.

"Well, 'Chinese Dumpling' wanted to move to Long Island and lock me in a large condo. He didn't want me to work, just to be a housewife and have his children. How about that?"

He made an annoyed face faking a woman's voice "That bastard! How dare him!"

"Stop it!" She threw one pea at him. "Men always run away from career women. You know I have bigger plans in life".

"Well… that's the way of life: men provide, women serve." He ducked the other pea aimed to his eyes. Betty looked at him with his apron, cooking for her and honestly thought that Gio wasn't really practicing what he preached.

"Betty Suarez," he continued, "you will live a bachelor if you don't accept those simple rules. And you have no right to complain, you were the one who ran away from him… like always," he said gloomily turning his back at her returning to the stove focusing on the bacons.

"Maybe so" she served a glass of juice and drank from the glass.

"Anyway, Chinese Dumpling, for being a broker in Wall Street he was nothing but a stuffed man, always too full of himself. I didn't like him".

"You never like them".

He came back on the table carrying two plates of bacon and eggs.

"That's not true".

"It is".

"It's not. I liked... The Minestrone, what was his name again?"

"You just liked him because he always got you free tickets to the stadium!"

"Well… that is also true", he grinned and then thought for a moment. "How about 'fish and chips'? The british guy. Your 'one true love'."

"You happened".

"Me?!" he sat on the stool in front of her.

"You scared the hell out of him. You almost beat him to a pulp" She counted with her fingers: "you gave him a black eye, a broken rib, a…"

"I get it. I get it. I remember. It was just a misunderstanding. You came to me with that story and… I thought he had beat you, that's all"

"It was an accident", she protested.

"I apologized, didn't I?"

"Now I remember that I swore I would never tell you anything anymore. You are just so passionate about everything. You better watch your health".

He grinned at her: "I don't remember you complaining last night".

"Shut up!"

He kept laughing like a river in the springtime, so refreshing to her ears.

"How about you and 'skinny spaghetti'?", she interrupted him. "I notice your house doesn't smell like a park anymore".

"Well, she is a florist. What's the problem with that?"

"What happened to her?"

"It didn't work out", that's what he always responded.

"That's the only serious relationship you've ever had all these years. You had her for like… five months, was it? That leaves you in no position to complain about me".

"I am a man. You are a woman. That's two different things"

They started quarreling between mouthfuls of eggs, bacon and peas, about former boyfriends and girlfriends, about womanhood and the superiority of man. After the meal was over, Gio busied himself at the cappuccino machine as Betty cleaned the kitchen.

"And you know. Chinese Dumpling even dared to try to convince me to stop dealing with the L.A partners and the concept of my new magazine. That made me furious. You know, I haven't given them an answer yet."

"Leaving the Meades, eh? Starting your own magazine in the west coast…"

"Yeah, it's so hard to find funding in New York. I would have to start by selling all my shares from Meade Corp."

"…and also your shares of my restaurant chain."

"I would never sell your shares" she said dismissively.

He raised his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Do you think I will let you eat all the profit gain by yourself? You gotta be crazy", she sat again in the table.

"So 'Chinese dumpling' had been teaching you a thing or two about good investment" he said bringing two cups of hot coffee to the table. "Anyway, I can lend you some money. You did it for me when I was bankrupt a few years ago".

"Thanks, but don't worry", she waved her hands scaring the thought. "I haven't made up my mind yet. I still have a bright future as chief editor of 'Women today'. Why leave something certain for something uncertain? I was just so pissed off when he forbade me to consider the option".

He snorted. "Tell me about it. Not everyone can impose to headstrong Betty Suarez".

She gave him a look.

He knew she had rejected 'Chinese Dumpling' the very night he proposed to marry her. That was cruel and he felt pity for the guy. It was the curse of Betty Suarez. She always ran when they started wanting some sort of commitment. Maybe that was exactly the reason why they had lasted so many years in that parody of relationship. Because they thought there were not bonds, not strings, just façade of freedom and liberty. And they pretended that the invisible chains and the daggers weren't there, refusing to acknowledge how much hurt they had been accumulating during the years.

And every time they separated they pretended they didn't really care.

But he did care. He wanted to ask her so many times to be only his and nobody else's. But he knew he would be rejected and disposed just like the rest. Just like once, many years ago she did to him. When the younger version of him confessed to her that he wanted to be the one and she just tore his heart away. No, he refused to experience that again. "It's better this way", he thought as he drank a bit of his coffee and saw her in front of him, beautiful, almost naked, smiling at him in his own kitchen, in front of him… reachable, "to be eternal lovers".

He smiled sadly.

He also knew she had never been attached to anyone like she was to him. But she had been his for only brief moments in their lives: a woman he could have but never own.

---

**Next Chapter: Forever The Friend**


	2. Forever The Friend

——

**Second chapter song: Labios Compartidos by Mana **

——

**Forever T****he Friend**

Betty had a hard time unlocking the front door of her apartment building reminding herself for the tenth time not to take a midnight flight never again. After a few minutes, she finally went through the corridor on the way to the elevator. She lived in a very modest flat in Manhattan for an editor of a prominent Publishing Company like the Meade Corporation, but she had other ideas about where to invest her money. She stopped in front of the lift and hit the button several times without response. She took a deep breath. That wasn't her best day. She would have to call the manager first thing in the morning. She grabbed her small suitcase and walked up the stairs up to the sixth floor. While she went up she checked her phone: not even a call. She wasn't really upset for the elevator malfunction, what really bothered her all the way back to New York in the airplane was that she really couldn't understand the reason Gio hadn't told her about Antonella's wedding. She had to find out from Mrs. Rossi herself, among all the people.

She had gone to Miami that weekend and took some free time to accompany her father, Ignacio, to Hilda's home. She managed to pay a visit to the Rossi family, like she always did when she went south. She couldn't believe she had to endure her face of disappointment as she admitted not only as she didn't knew about the matter but that she had no idea about Gio's whereabouts for weeks. And she called herself 'his friend'!

The old lady was eager to fill her in with the accounts of how Nella met her new fiancé and all the unnecessary details about Gio's latest love interest who seemed to be a real beauty, as Mrs. Rossi carefully described, who also 'was so obviously made for him'. Betty was surprised that Gio had even introduced that woman to his family when she hadn't even heard about her before. Mrs. Rossi was very interested in meeting her in person at Antonella's wedding in New York and would love to know Betty's impression about her, after all, she said: "you're also part of the family".

Part of the family.

Her foot got stuck in a small crack on the carpet and Betty tripped forward. She kept herself steady as she took hold of the wall. She cursed, took off her broken shoe and kept walking.

"Not even one single email", she thought. She was used to long days of absence but not to hear a word about family matters? That was just too much! She believed to be part of the Rossi family as much as he belonged to the Suarez. Both Gio and her were the ones that supported Antonella in her studies and later, designer career, in New York ever since her parents moved back to Florida many years ago leaving her to the care of her older brother. Antonella was always going around in her ways of the world and she was still too young and too crazy to observe social rules but she expected better from Gio. He had always managed to keep her informed of the latest news about her 'little foster sister'.

"He must be really into this woman to make him forget about family commitments", she thought fishing again the keys from her extremely colorful designer's purse. She stared at the keys for a while unconsciously trying to find a more suitable explanation. She knew that Gio didn't like emails claiming they were 'too impersonal'. So she had to rely on his phone calls for communication. Not even a single message.

She unlocked the door and entered her apartment. It wouldn't be long until she find out about him.

The first shock was the slap of the stench of alcohol filling the place. She threw the keys on the table by the door and turned on the lights.

"Argh! Turn it off!" Someone protested from the living room couch.

"Gio, what are you doing here?"

"Turn it off!"

She dimmed the lights to have enough vision to move around the living room and not to upset her unexpected guest.

"You could at least call me to tell me you were coming".

He slowly incorporated and rested his bare back on the sofa and muttered in a raspy voice. "I just wanted a place…"

"…to be on your own" she completed. It wasn't the first time she heard that.

She went to the kitchen and returned with two glasses of water. He drank his in one gulp. "How long you've been here?" she asked.

"Two days".

She noticed the bag in a corner of the living room. She knew he would never use her bedroom when she wasn't in the house. She took off her cardigan and the skirt and put them in the arm of the closest chair then turned around to the man who was sitting right in front of her.

"Did you bring any woman?"

He grunted.

"I know the rules".

She knew he did. They both observed the rules. They were too afraid to lose each other.

He yawned loudly.

"I thought you were coming tomorrow. I was going to pick you up".

"Caught an earlier flight. Check your email".

"I always check my email".

"I mean, daily".

She sat by his side and noticed his reddened eyes surrounded by circles of deep gray painted his sick pale skin as he turned his head back in the couch claiming for support. "Who is she?" she asked.

"You don't know her".

Must have been that woman who worked in a gallery, she thought, the one 'perfect for him' that Mrs. Rossi was so much talking about. No wonder he wasn't in his apartment. It must have been filled with paintings, other works of art and all her memories plastered on the walls. And all that after just a few months of sharing their lives together. She always wondered how Gio managed to give his all in so little time. For years she had seen him submerge aggressively into countless relationships with an insatiable hunger as if he tried desperately to find something he had lost somewhere. He always gave himself completely and every time ended there, spent and tired of loving. No matter how many times she tried, she could never convince him to give up on that endless search for real love. "Why couldn't he be just shallow and simple?" She questioned herself. "Why he had to be so passionate about everything?"

"What happened?" she asked stroking his hair, that magnet that always attracted her fingers. He let her pamper him for a minute or so and then reached for one of the many beer bottles aligned in the coffee table in front of him. He sipped from it and made a gesture of disgust. It was hot.

"It didn't work out".

He never opened his heart to her.

"How long will you be staying?"

"Until tomorrow".

—0—

It was morning already and Betty looked at her wristwatch, it was late but it didn't matter anymore. She was in no rush. She placed a bowl of cereal on top of the night table near him. He adjusted the pillows behind his neck.

"When are you going to learn to make real food?"

Betty pulled one of his toes for all answer as she walked to take her place in the bed. She turned on the TV, put the newspaper in her lap, singled out the sports section and placed it on top of that naked body she had by her side.

"Are we changing your locks this morning? I can help you repaint it if you want to. I have nothing to do today".

"No, please, don't!" He laughed, "Lime green and purple, again?"

"I didn't say I would pick the colors, you, ungrateful".

She went after his chest but he caught her arm before she could reach it and pulled her until she was on top of him. She laughed as he won against her failed attempt to hunt his nipple and took hold of her waist securing her in an embrace. She rested her elbows in the bed, by his side, unable to move inside her delicious imprisonment, feeling him warm under her and finding it really hard to stop laughing. He silenced her, becoming one in a lingering kiss, feeling her search for him as she played with his lips and his tongue for a moment. She suddenly pulled away.

"Ah! The beard!"

She touched him and gently massaged her fingers against the roughness of his face. And she saw him smile at her. He was so beautiful to her eyes. Not only because of those boyish features that gave him a younger look to his four decades of life but of those expressive eyes that reflected the purity of his soul and the passion in his stare; those meaty lips that seemed to have been drawn by the very hand of Apollo himself, lips that were so honest and giving. She felt her own body overflow with joy and delight at his contemplation. She looked at him with the eyes of love. She smiled back and said looking right through his beautiful jet black eyes:

"I love you… so much".

His lips formed a line and a cloud passed over his face for a second. She blinked at this and the smile erased from her face. He frowned realizing the impact of his own reaction and kissed her quickly on her forehead before he incorporated sitting in the bed. He coughed and grabbed the bowl of cereal.

Her heart sank inside her, cursing. She knew the rules.

Her eyes watered and she could barely see the wall of his bare back standing right in front of her. Her hand reached for his skin and she felt him slightly react to her touch. With her left hand she whipped those stupid tears that threatened to fall. She was no child. She should've known better.

She knew her place. She rested her head in his right shoulder, slightly hugging him as her left hand caressed his back. How many times she had desired to break those damned rules! How many times in the ecstasy of their love she wanted to shout his name a million times and release her feelings, to let it all free. But she had no choice but to bit her lips drowning the words in her soul. She must never say his name; they must never love again... Those were the rules they made for themselves.

She was more than a friend, less than a lover: a sinner, a body to take, an ear to speak and a mouth to kiss. Would she ever be really forgiven? Would she ever be worthy? She frowned and her heart grew cold again. She couldn't afford to invest in a feeling without future. He wasn't for her. She destroyed every possibility to be anything else. Their time was long over and anything beyond what they had would be a mistake, a betrayal to that young Gio she killed long ago.

"So," she finally said, "are we moving today?"

"Maybe tomorrow", he responded vaguely.

"You are making excuses again. You told me 'tomorrow' two weeks ago".

The sound of the crushing cereal inside his mouth was all that was heard for half a minute.

"You don't want me here, now?"

She got closer to him and hugged him tighter from the back.

"Papi will come tomorrow for a couple of days. I wouldn't like him to see you here. He'll ask questions".

"He knows I'm always here".

"Yes, I know" her head was still resting in his shoulders feeling him. Her dad didn't understand what they had. Every time she tried to be open and explain he kept saying that all they did was hurting each other and prolonging the pain. He knew nothing, she thought. He was too old fashion and she was too old to argue with him. No, he wouldn't understand how hard it was for her to let him go.

"Fine", Gio said rising and breaking free from her arms. "I'll move out this morning". He turned to face her and winked at her before walking to the kitchen. "But no lime green, you hear me?"

She sighed. People around her could tell he was using her and that she was equally using him. And she pretended she didn't care. But she did care.

It was her own punishment.

---

**Next Chapter: Forever The One**


	3. Forever The One

**Final Chapter Song: Faithfully by Journey **

——

**Forever T****he One**

Betty looked at him and her eyes started watering against her will, her lips curled in expectation.

"Looking at you standing so proud and beautiful here, in front of me, against all odds, I believe…" he felt his voice abandon him for a second until he found the courage to continue, "I know no other woman could be more right for me. I love you and I always will".

Two large tears trailed Betty's cheeks and a little sob broke through her chest.

"Here" Someone touched her shoulder and handled a napkin.

She took it from the woman that was sitting by her right side. Or was it a man? She couldn't tell from the mustache.

"I'm sorry. I always cry at weddings".

"Are you from the groom's side?" the old dandy man from her left asked.

"No… from Antonella's" she answered wiping her tears trying not to mess her makeup. She looked at the bride, dressed in a beautifully designed white gown, clung in an embrace to her now husband as their favorite song played. It was an old song from the time Antonella wasn't even born. But Betty knew well where her taste in music came from.

"I'm forever yours… faithfully" sang a voice to her ear. Betty jumped in her chair.

"Yes, nice song, mister" she said slightly pushing the old man that was leaning over her. "If you don't mind, please".

"Kind of cheesy, if you ask me" said a girl from the table chewing a large piece of bread in her mouth.

"I think it's nice", said Betty.

"I also think so, pretty lady" said the old man touching her left thigh under the table. She took his hand away, smiled politely and focused in eating some of the pastry she had on the table. "They're really something", Betty thought looking at the people sitting around her, and wondered why she always ended in such peculiar tables at weddings.

Antonella danced with her husband and the rest of the men in her family. Music was lively, many people started dancing. Italian weddings were really nice, Betty thought, fighting for the last piece of bread with the lady with the huge hat. She had the pleasure to be in many of them and she always enjoyed them.

There was salsa in the air. She knew that song and she couldn't control her body, sitting there on the table, as it started moving to the beat of the music. It seemed that not many knew how to dance that exotic rhythm and the floor was becoming deserted.

She noticed that the women in her table started whispering and exchanging glances. She turned to look and she found herself facing the object of their attentions.

"So, Betty, are you ready to impress everyone?" the man in front of her extended his hand to her.

She had been wondering why it took Gio so long to ask. She stood up with his help and he guided her to the floor. They were almost alone, having the whole floor for themselves; they danced together to the upbeat latin rhythm of the music, their movements gracefully coordinated, every step so full of energy and passion.

"So, I'm running out of parties", he said pulling her closer in a complicated turn. "You've seen all my sisters and brothers get married. I've been in Hilda's wedding and even got into Justin's."

"That was a good wedding" she said.

"A very good one."

"The food was amazing", she winked at him. She knew he had specially dedicated himself to cater Justin's wedding. He pleased them so much that he branched out his business out of the amount of new contacts he gathered there. Who would have thought the amount of parties that gay people threw per year?

"Thank you" he said holding her tighter. He made his steps shorter and pushed her closer to him. "You never bring any of your guys to the party so I always end up rescuing you from the bachelorette's table."

"Not that I needed any rescue."

"You always need it. But that's only when you're not rescuing others…"

Music changed into a more contemporary beat. Younger people started invading the floor. Gio led her out. She felt a bit let down just by thinking of return to her table. She thought could very well go and help Mrs. Rossi with the whole organization. She was sure she would appreciate that. Just when she was about to ask Gio where his mother was, Antonella came almost dragging her husband all the way to where they were standing.

The guys shook hands. Antonella pushed her brother by the arm. "Gio, let me introduce you to the rest of Sean´s family". Betty was about to walk alone to her table when Antonella waved at her. "Betty, you come, too. You know you are family".

Antonella introduced them to her husband's family. They were nice people of Jamaican origins that lived mainly in San Francisco. She was also moving to the west coast. Gio thought that was the problem of living in a house with so many women. They ended up leaving. He hated when people left, especially people he cared about.

One of the younger sisters of the groom came to where they were. "Nella, I finally find you". She shook her cocktail glass. "You must take a look at the bartender. He is hot!" She stopped to check on Gio and Betty. "I know you, you are Nella's gorgeous brother and you… you must be Maria".

"No, that's another one" Antonella pushed her sister-in-law back and told Betty, "Don't mind her. She's drunk".

"I'm not drunk", she complained. "I've seen you before… you're always together. You're his fiancée".

Betty smiled and looked at Gio who raised both his eyebrows, amused.

"No, she's Betty. Friend of the family, remember?" Antonella quickly fixed.

"Don't worry" Betty said. "We get that all the time".

The girl took a step further and took a closer look at Betty.

"Then why aren't you together? Look at him! He's a catch!"

Gio and Betty looked at each other trying to contain their laughs.

"Yes, 'catchy man', why aren't we together?" she asked hugging Gio by the waist.

"You tell me. I don't know". He started laughing and Betty followed.

"Let's take you back to your table, Daisy" Antonella rolled her eyes and pushed her friend away while Gio and Betty watched them leave. Gio held Betty tighter. They walked to the cocktail table arm in arm. He asked for her favorite drink.

"You know, Gio… I've been thinking…" She took her cocktail and took a quick sip before continuing. She gathered the strength she needed to say the words. "Gio, I'm leaving".

He turned around and looked at her. Somehow he wasn't surprised. She searched in his eyes looking for a reaction.

"So, you chose L.A. after all". He raised his glass for a toast. "Congratulations! Nothing like being your own boss, right?"

"You must know that better than anyone" she said. She avoided his stare. She couldn't find what she was looking for. No, there was nothing left that could attach her in New York, she thought quietly.

"What's with the face? A brand new world is ahead of you" he gave her a sad smile. He knew what she was thinking. But instead he said: "Finally we can get out of this loop. You and me."

She cracked a smile and toasted with him.

"Yes, a brand new life"

—0—

Betty opened the door of her place. She was returning from another farewell party and she was spent. She stopped for a second before hanging her coat. There was another one made of leather resting in the hanger. Her heart shrank inside her. Was that night going to be her proper farewell? She thought leaving the keys near the ones that were on top of the table. She walked straight to the kitchen.

He was there.

Through the shadows she found him. It was dark. The light coming from the opened door cast a glow over him, like a vision. He was looking at her and she always felt naked when he looked at her in that way. A bottle of wine opened on the table: he had been expecting her. She looked at him already with nostalgia. Like part of that apartment, he belonged to New York. Soon to be nothing more than memories of her past life. She smiled, she had been prepared. She felt the calm overcome her. She just wanted to remember him like he had always been, like they've always been. "I've told you many times, when you plan to come here you must…"

"I'm not leaving you" he interrupted her leaving the glass of wine he had been holding in his hand on the table. There was a sudden silence in the room.

She broke the awkward silence with a little laugh.

"Are you asking me to marry you?" she said lifting one eyebrow.

"Are you refusing me?" he said crossing his arms on his chest. His voice was grave. He wasn't joking.

She avoided his stare. She turned on the lights and walked all around to the room nervously looking for an empty glass of wine but, incredibly unable to find one in her own kitchen.

"Aren't we a bit too old for this?"

"I am not leaving you, Betty Suarez" he interrupted again. She shook her head and kept looking in the drawers.

He took her by the elbow forcing her to face him. She looked at him with a puzzled face. His voice was commanding and echoed in her ears as he spoke them: "You're mine. You're nothing without me".

She was taken by surprise by his words but her pride quickly overcame her and she made a gesture. She escaped his claws "That's what you…"

"…and I'm nothing without you".

She turned and faced him again. Those eyes were giving his all and he didn't need to say more. She understood. Her heart understood. She tried to savor every second. There was nothing compared to this in those stories she used to read about or in those that she used to write about. Because this time it was her own story. She wanted to rejoice and remember every part of the emotion that overcame her and filled her with delight just by hearing those words. She needed that. She needed him. That was the moment. That moment that defined her own real story of life.

But she gave up. It was her curse. She let out the breath she had been holding all that time. No, she told the girl that was inside of her, life was more complicated than that. She didn't believe in Romeo and Juliet anymore.

"I can't change my plans. I already signed for California".

He got closer to her.

"You don't have to change them." She looked at him in disbelief. Those eyes, those lips were hypnotizing. "Just… let me be part of yours".

"And you? How about your business? Your plan!"

Why he had to be so passionate about everything?

"Business is as good in L.A. as any other part of the world".

Her heart was restless. It was too easy. Why couldn't she just jump to him and be happy? Why she had to make life even more complicated? Why couldn't she just learn to make things simpler? To just be.

"Don't let me go", he told her looking the way he only knew how to look at her. For a second she felt a pledge, a desperate request in his eyes. He frowned and the intensity of the determination of his eyes froze her. "No. I won't let you".

She heard his voice as pure and sincere as she had once heard fifteen years ago. She felt time return to the past. She was the one the one who needed peace, to be released from her prison, to be forgiven, the one that needed to be saved by him. He had broken her.

"Damn you! You always know what to say…"

He assaulted her opened lips and kissed her with passion. She took hold of his shirt and let herself abandon to him. He always knew what to do. He was the only one who could ever dominate and command her to his will. She tasted in those ardent lips a small sample of what the rest of the night had for her and only for her. She kissed him whispering his name between 'I love you's for as many times her heart desired.

She searched for air escaping for a moment from those drowning lips. He released her.

"You know this is going to be a difficult marriage", she pointed out.

"It's going to be exciting", he corrected her.

She laughed. Her fate was written the moment she met him many years ago. He was her destiny.

"So my husband is moving to L.A. with me!" she cocked an eyebrow. "Who's the man?!"

"Don't push your luck" He admitted sourly. "You don't know how hard it's for me. You are the one supposed to move to where your _marido_ is working. Not the other way around".

"You and your stupid macho pride" she pinched his chest with her fingers.

He groaned.

"Why the nipple? Why always the nipple?!"

She smiled. He smiled back to her. He had broken just so many rules that night. And all was worth it. Just to engrave that smile in his memory was enough. "Hell it wasn't", he answered himself. He craved for everything. He wanted her to belong completely to him: forever his and only for him. He deserved her.

He caught her by the waist and violently rested his hips into hers.

"I'll show you who's the man". She felt every word against her body. He didn't have to prove her anything. She knew well enough what he was capable to do to her physically and emotionally. How he could overpower her with his touch, with his words… with his love. And he has always been her man. She couldn't belong to anyone else. She must have unconsciously known that for many years.

She kept laughing like crazy. Like years ago when she was young and naïve, when her smile was candid and spontaneous, like most of the times when he made her laugh. She knew she will be happy. She had been happy all these years. She laughed at herself and at her blindness, she laughed at her own happiness and at their future. Together. Forever her one and only.

**THE END**


End file.
